


Contingency

by debwalsh



Series: Bingo-Bingo [11]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Fluff Bingo, Hurt Steve Rogers, M/M, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Protective Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 05:24:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18403985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/debwalsh/pseuds/debwalsh
Summary: When an op goes sideways and Steve is seriously injured, Bucky is going not so quietly insane. But inspiration from their past provides a much needed distraction in the days leading up to Steve regaining consciousness.  And once Steve is on the mend, it’s only a matter of time before Bucky can share that distraction with Steve.For the “building a pillow fort” square of my Fluff Bingo card, the prompt was chosen by my Patreon patron Noukian.  And what a pleasure it was to write this for them!





	Contingency

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Noukian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noukian/gifts).



> Another prompt fill, another delicious world with Steve and Bucky. I mentioned on Patreon that as soon as I saw the prompt request, I had an image of the structure in the story just appear in my head. That’s what I love about prompts - the unexpected flashes of inspiration.
> 
> I really loved writing this - I hope you enjoy reading it as much!

It started as a lunatic idea when he was stuck behind in New York, and Steve was on an extended mission in the Middle East.Steve’s trip had started as more of a diplomatic mission than an Avengers thing, but a splinter cell of AIM had joined forces with a remnant of Hydra, and their combined assholery had resulted in some serious damage in the capital of a small country, injury to the nation’s hereditary monarch, and an undeclared blood feud.Each of these things were problematic enough on their own, but all happening at once meant a firefight that Steve had not been prepared for, but leapt into anyway.Goddamned punk.

By the time the Avengers arrived on site, Steve had marshaled the king’s forces and had mostly contained the AIM operatives, so the Avengers had been able to focus primarily on digging out the Hydra vermin.  The thing was, they were ultimately successful.  But not until after Hydra had utilized some borrowed AIM tech to drop a building on Steve.  It wasn’t a big building, and Steve had certainly had larger structures dropped on him in the past.  Because ... well, Steve.  But it was still a building, in an unstable area that had already been rocked by mortar fire during the early part of the fight.  

So digging Steve out had taken time.  Precious time that ticked away and gnawed at Bucky’s sanity as he watched the whole thing unfold on the big screen.

Not for the first time, he kind of missed the slow speed of information dispersal of the old days, but then again, he never would’ve been able to sit still for weeks in communications blackout while Steve was out of the country.

He had JARVIS patch him through to Sam, since he wasn’t involved in the rescue effort at the moment, and he trusted Wilson to be clear but honest with him.  He didn’t need anything held back, and he didn’t need anything sugar coated.  He needed the truth.  No, he needed Steve. But he needed the truth, too.

“Area took some heavy damage during the fighting.  And with bigger holes in the ground, a whole network of underground tunnels has been exposed.  So the ground around the site is a mess.  Tony’s worried about collapse all around the perimeter.”

“And where Steve is?”

“There’s a heat signature.  Heartbeat.  Slow, but steady.  He’s probably unconscious.”

“Which explains why he hasn’t tried to dig himself out.”

“Yeah.  Tony’s deployed the Iron Legion so they can tether the building from multiple points and lift it all once.”

“What’s Stark’s mood?”

“Quiet.  Grim.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Anything I can do?”

“Cho’s en route from Seoul to New York.  Banner will stabilize him as much as he can on site, and Helen will take care of any, um, repairs.”

“Everybody’s planning for the worst.”

“The worst would be we don’t find him.  Or we find him too late.  Not gonna happen. No, everybody’s planning for the best possible outcome, Barnes.  Losing Steve is not an option.”

“Damn straight it’s not.”

&&&

Bucky was stuck in New York because he was recovering himself from a recent upgrade to the arm and its neural connections.  Shuri had visited with her portable lab, added more nerve receptors, anchoring them in his brain with a frankly terrifying ease, and had ordered Bucky to remain grounded for a minimum of three weeks to allow his brain time to heal and fully integrate the changes.  It was a novel approach to working with his brain - Hydra had never been worried about the niceties of patient care when they’d dug around his noggin.  And Bucky was inclined to ignore his own health in favor of fretting over Steve’s. But Shuri had secured JARVIS’s agreement to keep Bucky out of the air, and none of the QuinJets would allow Bucky safe passage.  So he was stuck in New York, out of the action, and too far from Steve.

He was going very quickly batshit.

Then three things happened in rapid succession.

The Iron Legion, Stark, and Rhodes managed to coordinate lifting the building off where Steve had been.

Wilson swept in and pulled Steve out, getting him to Banner on the QuinJet.

Helen Cho arrived and immediately commandeered the medical unit, preparing for Steve’s arrival.  She was in constant contact with Banner and Wilson.

Her grim determination scared the shit out of Bucky.

“Sergeant Barnes, I assure you, the information I’m receiving from the monitoring equipment is promising.”

“Promising.”

“Captain Rogers - Steve - is currently unconscious.  His body has experienced a great deal of trauma, so it’s best that he’s not conscious to suffer too much pain.  The serum is doing its job.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I’m the insurance policy, Bucky.  I’m here so you won’t need me.  But just in case, no waiting.”

Waiting was all there was now.  

Steve was back in New York, now in a medically-induced coma so all his resources could be directed at repair and recovery.

He looked worse than that day on the helicarrier.

His nose was broken. Again.

The x-ray showed several ribs and his entire right legs were nearly pulverized.  Stark’s scanners showed the knitting of tissue in real-time, and frankly, it was creepy to watch.  Bucky knew in principle what happened in his body and Steve’s, but to actually see it happening ... well, Weird Tales didn’t even start to describe it.

He hovered, and he fretted.  He punched things, and he snapped at nice people who just wanted to help. He made a nuisance of himself, and he was finally banned from the center.  At least until Steve woke up.  

So instead, he watched Steve on the big screen TV. He got a running report from JARVIS on Steve’s condition.  He was making himself fucking nuts.

So Bucky kept himself busy.  To distract himself, he came up with a lunatic idea.

The lunatic idea became schematics.  And then the schematics became fabrication plans.  Then the plans became actual materials, most of them printed on one of Stark’s proprietary 3D printers.

Finally he had all the pieces.  He called on Wilson to help, since he knew he was going just as crazy, and he was at least good with his hands.  Barton, too - the guys was a wizard when it came to home repair.  Nat had just arched a judgmental eyebrow at him when he’d mentioned the idea, so she was off the crew.

It took them the better part of a day to put all the pieces in place, run the lines, and test the design.  

That night, Steve woke up.  Banishment, smanishment.  As soon as JARVIS informed him of the change in Steve’s condition, Bucky was on his way to the medical center, and was immovable - he refused to leave Steve’s bedside except when nature called .  A couple of times he seriously considered that urinal thingie, or even a catheter.  But that just seemed to scare people even more, so he used the facilities attached to Steve’s room.  Under protest.  Damned endocrine system.

He was the last thing Steve would see before he fell asleep.  He was the first thing Steve would see when he woke up.  His was the hand holding Steve’s.  His was the voice Steve heard.  His were the memories they shared.

In return, he got to see the color return to Steve’s cheeks.  He got to see Steve’s eyes open, wreathed in fine wrinkles when Steve smiled at him.  He got to hear the rusty sound of Steve’s first words, feel his heart clench at the thought that he might never have heard that beloved voice again.

Bucky didn’t return to the apartment until the day of Steve’s release.  While Cho and Banner prepared to release Steve into Bucky’s care, Bucky raced back to the apartment to make sure that everything was ready.  He smiled to himself as a memory came back to him unbidden.

And he knew that this was perfect.

&&&

“I can walk.”

“You’re not allowed.”

“I feel fine.”

“You had a building dropped on you, Steve.  A week ago.  Most people would be dead.  You just have to allow time to heal.”

“You all are ganging up on me.”

“We all wanna keep you around.  Though God knows why.  Got enough assholes in the world.”

Steve was silent then, and Bucky had to lean forward to peer at his boyfriend’s face.  Steve’s face was serious, sad even, his lip trembling, his color high.

“Steve?”

“I’m sorry.  For worrying you.  I didn’t mean for it to happen -“

“I know, babe.  Tony’s talking everybody’s gotta have a buddy when they travel from now on.  So if something happens, they each have back-up.  You were alone out there.  And you did amazing.  You kept the lid on it until the rest of the team could get there.”

“No choice.  Had to be done.”

“I’ll let you slide this time, sweetheart.  ‘Cos ya had no reason to think they were gonna drop a building on you.  But next time you think about sacrificing yourself for someone else, you think about me.  You think about how I’d feel about losing you.  You think about how I’d march into the afterlife to drag your sorry ass out of there.  And then you get said ass to safety.  And back to me.  ‘Cos that ass is mine.  Right?”

“Right, Buck.”

The elevator had reached its destination.  “Okay, now.  Close your eyes.  Got a surprise for you.”

&&&

Bucky had wheeled Steve into the apartment, checking every few seconds to make sure he still had his eyes closed.  Then he lifted him out of the chair, over Steve’s squawk and complaints, still admonishing Steve to keep those blue peepers closed.  

Then he’d carried Steve, still grumbling, into the living room.  He kneeled down and placed Steve in the center of a futon mattress with a featherbed on top, letting Steve sigh into the softness, surrounded by pillows.  He glanced around him, at the arrangement of furniture, the placement of more pillows, the mini-fridge, and the baskets of fruit and snacks.  He was ready.

“Open your eyes, Stevie.”

Steve did, and looked around him with a grin that grew larger with every passing second.  “Buck, what’d you do?  This reminds me of - “

“When we pulled the couch cushions onto the floor and made our pillow fort.  Yeah.”  He pulled out a flashlight and handed it to Steve, then pointed to a pile of books and graphic novels.  Steve’s smile threatened to split his face in two.

Then Bucky lifted up a remote and pressed the button.  Silently, cables dropped down from the ceiling where he and the guys had anchored them, lowering lines with blankets, throws, and comforters draped over them to lower into place around them.

A pillow fort, apparently forming around them out of thin air. Bucky’s project become manifest.  

Steve watched in awe, the grin morphed to open-mouthed amazement.  “Buck, it’s amazing!” he breathed, eyes wide as his mouth recaptured his smile. 

It took a few moments, but everything clicked into place, and they were in their own little world, a blanket and pillow fort made to contain two super soldiers in comfort while Steve recovered.

“We did this when you got sick and couldn’t leave the apartment.”

“You’d create a world just for me.  Just for us.”

“The best place to recover, you said.”

“It still is.  Oh, Buck.  This is perfect.  And the bed is big enough for two.”

“For sleeping.  And cuddles.  And kisses.  For now.”  Bucky leaned over and kissed Steve.  He broke away with a grin.  “You get more when you’re healed.”

“Way to give a fella incentive, Buck,” Steve answered, snuggling into Bucky’s arms as he slid into place beside him.

As Bucky held Steve close, he closed his eyes and breathed him in.  They were a pair of impossibilities, but that didn’t matter so long as they had each other.  Finally, Bucky felt able to rest, at peace now that Steve was safely in his arms.  

Together, two boys from Brooklyn drifted to sleep together, dreaming of pillow forts and promises, and the days yet to come.

END

 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! 
> 
> Find me on the web: https://linktr.ee/debwalshweb


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